Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Hard Case Crime is celebrating their 50th book by publishing Fifty-to-One, a book with each chapter named after one of their titles. Glen Orbik created this cool painting that depicts many of the previous Hard Case books. It’s amazing how so few brush strokes so completely describe the other covers.

Meanwhile...

Donato just handed in this painting for a new L. E Modesitt book from Tor, Imager. (Due out next year.)The story centers around a painter. Donato used Rueben’s studio door in the background and his own maul stick. I asked if the painting depicted was an actual one and he said that it was what just happened to be next on his easel. I also asked if it was hard to forget that he was painting a painting of a face rather than trying to depict an “actual” face. He said that there was a point at which it started to round out a little too much, taking on a hologram effect, but once he treated it as abstract shapes, everything fell into place.

UPDATE: Now including the Imager sketch — if you look carefully you can see the work of Giancola, the Younger. And Donato tells me that the model is Gregory Peck’s grandson.

17 comments:

What fun! I remember seeing a color study for that Donato painting (the one in the painting, with the leaves) in an art show at a con in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area last February. Donato was a terrific guest, and did a fascinating live painting demo. (And we bought a lovely original color study in the art show!) I just love his work.

BTW, I neglected Donato's piece because I'm dumbfounded by EVERYTHING he does! Thanks for the compliment, Erik! Your mummy piece is nothing to sneer at! Love the color! This was a fun exercise, though my old eyes are hating me! LOL

I have been a fan of Orbik's for some time and recently heard an interview with Richard Aleas (can't remember the author's real name) on this book celebrating their 50th novel. It sounded like a very unique and interesting idea and I can't wait to pick it up to see if the experiment works.

Impressed me mightily. First time in ages that I've regretted never having been one of those people--as a kid even--who had any facility for picking up a pen, pencil, crayons, or paintbrush and making images. I wrote. And my graphic arts work has always been confined to handling type and making pages.

But this is a blog I want to link with and read regularly, as I could stand to at least feed my visual side. I invite you to have a look at mine at http://www.tianodesign.com and I look forward to your next posts.